Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Space Raspberries & Rum was released by Minnesota-based indie polish maker Elevation Polish as part of the Highest Elevation... Space collection in February this year. Creator Lulu describes this as a deep raspberry holo with holographic flake shimmers and a touch of golden microshimmers. To my eye, the base color is a nice deep purple that's right in the middle of the red/blue purple spectrum, in between patriarch and eminence. Some of the variously-sized holographic flake shimmers are so large and rowdy that looking at the bottle I was convinced that this polish had glitter in it. They are a perfect addition to an outer space-themed polish, with a prismatic sparkle that displays a star-like twinkling aspect as you turn your hands in the light. Moderately-milled holographic pigment gives the polish great depth and dimension, furthering its cosmic vibe. The golden microshimmers are more visible in the bottle than they are on the nail, but add complexity to the look and are perceptible on close inspection as a delicate golden glimmer at the edges of the polish.Application was slightly obstreperous thanks to those larger holographic microflakes, which display every kind of component unruliness. They tumble, they stick up, they protrude over the free edge. Naughty flakes! The consistency of Space Raspberries & Rum is fluid and a little sticky in the way that some jellies are (where it seems to prefer clinging to the brush over going onto the nail), with a medium-to-thicker viscosity that sets up very quickly. After a couple of nails I decided to add polish thinner to create more fluidity, which helped a lot and and made the flakes less inclined to misbehave. Still, this polish defied my attempts at thin coats, and ended going on best for me in medium to thicker coats from a generously loaded brush. Pigmentation is very good. Two medium coats nets evenly opaque coverage. Cleanup was surprisingly easy. I was expecting some recalcitrance on the part of those larger flakes, but they gave it up quite easily, and there was only a little bit of pigment travel and no residual staining to speak of from the purple base, even when I flooded a few sidewalls. Space Raspberries & Rum dries naturally in good time to a shiny finish with a gentle texture from the flakes, mostly smoothed with a single layer of topcoat. Photos show two coats of Space Raspberries & Rum over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

Elevation Polish Space Raspberries & Rum

If space were purple, this is exactly what the cosmos would look like! Despite their shenanigans during application, the sparkly holographic flakes make this polish. The various shapes really give them a cosmic presence. I also like the feel of this polish on the nail, the way it dries down to a thin layer that seems as if it would hold up well to wear. And it's one of those deep purples that unequivocally maintains it purple-ness even in low light. I like it. I like it very much.love,Liz

2 comments:

Gads sake - that's a gorgeous polish! When I click on your photos, I can really see how dimensional it is on the nails. The maker did an excellent job with the various components to create this polish! It looks yummy - all that purple jelly look makes me wish I could spread it on peanut butter - what a beautiful sandwich that would make!

Hahaha, sandwich! Isn't it wonderful? Totally worth taming those naughty flakes, and the end result was so much better than I thought it would be. Thrilled. I was thrilled.

This would make amazing car paint, if I could cotton myself to a purple car. Back in my auto enthusiast days I had a real issue with purple cars. Ford would occasionally come out with this outright metallic purple and it just was not right! Even though I still kind of feel that way, I've come around a little tiny bit since Fuzzy bought her dark purple Scion IQ. She had it in grey first, but some dude pulling a trailer lost his brakes on an exit ramp and totally took off the nose of the thing. Luckily she wasn't hurt, but she sure would have been had she been going just a little faster. So anyway we went to get her another one and they only had a medium-light blue and the purple. I was like, NO! No purple cars! But she just didn't look right in the blue one, so there you go.